Are you about to read this Robert Bailey book? You’d best put yourself on a strong exercise routine … find a good cardio workout … because this book will have your heart racing, your adrenaline pumping at high levels and you will want to be strong enough to finish.
JimBone Wheeler is about as bad a human being as a man can get. He’s a killer without remorse and he’ll delight in defiling a body – preferably before the victim is even dead. And JimBone has a grudge against Tom McMurtrie since it was Tom who put Wheeler behind bars.
The absolute worst kind of killer is one with charisma and is able to convince others to do his bidding. Wheeler has that charisma and elicits help from the prison nurse and manages his escape from the highly fortified prison, not long before his scheduled execution. And with JimBone Wheeler on the loose no one with even the most remote ties to McMurtie are safe. JimBone Wheeler doesn’t want revenge … he wants his ‘reckoning.’
I am absolutely exhausted! This book is one breath-catching moment after another (though author Robert Bailey does manage to give us just enough pauses between high-anxiety moments to let us catch a breath before the next assault).
This might be the perfect legal thriller. Tom McMurtrie is about as clever and good as Wheeler is charismatic and bad. They are perfect foils for one another and this is their ultimate showdown. I think it is safe to say that neither will come through unscathed.
Bailey’s characters are a unique combination of being a bit stereotypical and having a great sense of uniqueness (they stand out from one another quite well) and depth. It helps, I suspect, that I’ve read a few of Bailey’s books now and I can follow the characters better.
The story is quite singularly focused. There’s a brief little sub-plot but we don’t spend much time with it. The JimBone Wheeler story is our only real focus here (Wheeler wouldn’t have it any other way), but there’s all we need, and more, with this single story. Wheeler’s reckoning is all we know at the start – how he will achieve that is the question that keeps us going, and how McMurtrie will survive. If he survives. McMurtrie is likely on death’s door (we experience a few doctor’s visits with him) and it looks as though he’ll take that knowledge and make of himself a sacrifice to save others.
This book is a phenomenal reading experience. It is a thrill ride that is made more exciting because the characters are created so solidly that we connect with them as if they really are our neighbors and friends.
Looking for a good book? The Final Reckoning by Robert Bailey is a tremendously exciting legal thriller that you really must read.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
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The Final Reckoning
author: Robert Bailey
series: McMurtrie and Drake Legal Thrillers #4
publisher: Thomas & Mercer
ISBN: 1503902269
hardcover, 416 pages
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